Paradox II: The Chancelling: Aquamarine

Want to make the second Pierre interview looser than the first, yet still a direct continuation.

First of all, and this is the big development today, the interview will be conducted at Port Gibson, Mississippi, specifically a house(?) boat at the mouth of Bakers Creek just west of the city, on Little Bayou Pierre that this creek empties into. This is the mouth of baker; get it? Emptying into Pierre’s Ear. Perhaps call the interview Pierre’s Ear? Maybe takes place symbolically at The Diamonds (a location in Missouri, or a former famous eatery – huge roadside diner).

At the interview now, at least in one or two parts — perhaps the first part — will be former baseball “great” Dean Chance, who may or may not be the same as Dean Mr. Synchronicity from the Synching Troop.

At least Synching Troop Dean might play the part (call it Synching Troop instead of Twin Duchs). A map will be on the boat showing their location, ‘cept we have nos. 18-22 superimposed on Bakers Creek, with 22 being at the mouth and at the location of the houseboat baker and Pierre and Dean are on.

Special guest tonight will be Dean Chance, former Los Angeles Angels great.

This will refer to Gibson winning 18, 19, 20, 21 games from 1963 – 1966, but only 13 in 1967. However, he did win the World Series for the Cardinals that year, and beat 22 game winner John Lonborg, who also won the Cy Young award that year, in the game. Then in 1968 Gibson himself won 22 games and also garnered the Cy Young award himself. 1967 was the first time the award was split between the two leagues, American and National. Gibson also had one of the lowest ERAs ever that year (1.12, basically 1/2 of 2.22). However, if you asked Gibson, he may say his finest moment may have come in that 7th game in 1967 instead of anytime in 1968, since in that year the Cardinals were beaten by Detroit in the World Series. (look up: titles the Cardinals won).

*****

“So Pierre, we agree that might be Gibson’s greatest moment… if you asked him, instead of the ’68 accomplishments.”

“Right. We agreed beforehand.”

“And so we sit here on this houseboat floating on calm, muddy Little Pierre Bayou, with the mouth of Bakers Creek directly to our right side. Do you need your latte refreshed Pierre? ”

“No. Fine.”

“Maybe we should put up the umbrella. The sun’s getting in my eyes.”

“”Kay.” Pierre glances at the mouth of Bakers Creek. “Where’s Dean?”

“Getting some water,” baker answers.

A third chair was positioned between Pierre and baker.: Dean’s.

Dean comes out with his water. “In the Big Leagues, we learned that drinking water kept our energy level up. That latte will just dehydrate you.”

“Listen Dean, if we want you to talk, we’ll point at you,” baker says. “Jez kidd’n. Say what you wish.”

“I didn’t get Head Trip. How was that two movies? All I saw was various shows of The Monkees.”

Pierre: “The focus is, on the top, 4orrin1. Baker and I have agreed to talk about the resonance of 4orrin1 with SID’s 1st Oz.”

“Now Dean, you haven’t seen 4orrin1,” baker adds, “but we’ll rectify that tonight. Any time you want to leave go ahead sir.”

“I just wanted to say for the interview that I’m not really Dean Chance, former Cy Young award winner, but Don Chance of Arkansas. We both play a mean game of gin, though. I’m the online version of the other Chance.”

Baker: “Fine, it doesn’t matter who you are, since this is a kind of parody. I’m glad you are a Don from Arkansas, `cause it might give us an excuse to bring up another, more famous Don from the Razorback state. Writer fellow named Don Harington. So maybe when we point two fingers at you you’re Don Harington instead of Dean Chance.”

Dean/Don: “Well, you gotta give me some background.”

Baker: “Two fingers are a monstrosity. Tenny should have never married you.”

Pierre (ignoring baker): “I think it would be funnier without it. Just make up something. So we’re back to the mouth of Baker, here in the real world. I’m staring right at it. So baker, more words please.”

“What were we going to start with?”

“We were talking about Bodysong and Music from the Body and how they are similar; how both are soundtracks with the words Body in them, and both are about the functions of the human body [check], and also both are the first solo efforts from perhaps the most important members of the greatest bands of their eras, or Pink Floyd and Radiohead. And how you’ve used these similar albums in similar ways in the two audiovisual synchs SID’s 1st Oz and 4orrin1.”

‘I got it Pierre,” baker then suggests. “Why don’t you do a review of the last interview.”

“Why don’t you?”

“We’ll flip a coin. No, we’ll let Don decide. Dean, Don, whatever.”

Dean/Don: “Call me Henry. That’s my actual name. Henry Chance. How much do I get paid for this again?”

“You get ten percent of the royalties we make from the interview. Baker makes, I mean.” Pierre winks at baker, and Dean/Don/Henry catches it.

“Hey, why’d you wink at him? It took me plumb near 50 dollars worth of gas to get here from Hot Springs.”

“Your future wife is rich, though.”

“My future wife is dirt poor, thank you very much.”

“I mean her psychic life,” Pierre clarifies.

“Oh.”

“She’s the real reason we’re here, I think. She probably created all the names around us. The conjunction of Baker and Pierre here. And it was a pretend drive anyway. Baker’s the one who did all the driving… to Missouri here. We’re not really in Mississippi.”

Baker: “Miss Tippy.”

Pierre: “Yes.” Baker and Pierre laugh. Henry doesn’t get it.

“You’re pretend, Henry,” Pierre continues. “You’re not really here. This is a dream. This is a pretend interview. Nothing exists. Not this houseboat, not you, not me, not baker. Only baker’s mouth.” Pierre stares at the creek mouth again. “If I stared at it long enough, I think the two would become one.”

baker: “Then stare at it.”

Pierre stared at the creek mouth long enough. He becomes Times Tin.

“Now I bet you’re ready to talk!” baker exclaims.

“There are two octaves we are dealing with, Do, Do and then, um, then… ”

Baker: “Do. Stop joking.”

Pierre: “Right. So the do and do of do do do, the last two dos, is what we want to focus on to begin. SID’s 1st Oz and 4orrin1. What I’m picking up is that Bodysong, the Jonny Greenwood solo effort, is used in what we could call the two major movies in 4orrin1, while Music from the Body is only used in 1 movie in SID, because, of course, there’s only 1 movie in the whole synch to begin with.”

Baker: “Return to Oz. Thanks for getting serious all of a sudden.”

Pierre: “No problem.”

Baker: “Coz I was worried we were never going to get serious.”

Pierre. “Right. So the two movies that conduct Bodysong within 4orrin1, two of the four or five major movies in the synch…”

Pierre: “Right. So right off the bat — appropriate phrasing — we have this central opposition in our 4orrin1 colors — red, green, blue, yellow — of red verses green.”

Henry (words slurred): “Talk about the Rat. The giant one.”

Pierre: “In a minute Henry.” Then he gets curious. “So you’ve seen 4orrin1 now? Never mind, it will clear up.”

Baker: “Red and green are seven and six, six and seven, I mean. One is the difference, and that one is the same as TILE which is the same as the Tile Creek difference between Frank and Herman Parks. ”

Pierre: “Bakers Creek, yeah.”

Baker: “The flow of Appalachian Spring throughout the synch indicates this. From frame to shining frame, which is Floyd.”

Pierre: “Perhaps we should return to colors. Now this frame, as we’ve spoken about, is blue.

Pink Floyd… the only tile or tiles, since the only song used, Cirrus 9, is broken in two, with the first part at the very beginning of 4orrin1 and the second and last part at the very end of same. This is a frame, then. Like a… ”

Baker: “I’m glad you’re doing a lot of the talking Pierre.”

Pierre: “I am possessed by your mouth. What you stare at you become. In this world anyway.”

Baker: “And then the picture itself, the framed, is, at first green, before it descends further as we move further inside the picture to red, yellow and all other colors. This means that Anne of Green Gables, the green movie, lies just inside the outer frame.”

Pierre: “Back up and describe the frame. Never mind, I’ll do it. We’ve already identified the song used: Cirrus 9, the first song from the soundtrack More, one of Pink Floyd’s earlier efforts.”

Baker: “Curious resonance with Pink Vertigo discussed in the last interview. That is, we have the first song off an early Floyd album again, just as happens 4 times in that early Floyd synch. One of the only remaining albums at that.”

Pierre: “Let’s see. Let me count those off again: Piper at the Gates of Dawn, Saucerful of Secrets, Ummagumma.”

Baker: “Ummagumma is skipped over.”

Pierre: “Oh yeah, right. That’s the other early Hitchcock synch, with Psycho. The one that *only* uses Ummagumma. So continuing, we have, after Ummagumma, Atom Heart Mother and then Meddle. Then Dark Side of the Moon.”

Baker: “And then the 1st song off the soundtrack to the movie La Valle, which is Obscured by the Clouds. This opens Pink Vertigo.”

Pierre: “So now you’re saying we have another first song off an early Floyd album, and another soundtrack now — More. Are there any other early Floyd soundtracks left?”

Baker: “Just Zabriskie Point. But the resonance between Pink Vertigo and 4orrin1 is obvious here.”

Pierre: “Makes sense.”

Henry (even drunker): “We could take… the last train to Clarksville.” He snickers.

Pierre: “Be quiet, Henry.” Henry then appears to doze off. “So we need to also talk about the movie that Cirrus 9, this first song off the More soundtrack, overlaps in 4orrin1, and this is Straight Story, a movie directed by David Lunch from 1999, I believe.”

Henry: “I’m HUNGRY.”

Baker: “1999, yes.”

Pierre: “Do you want to explain this baker?”

Baker: “Well, essentially, the first part of Cirrus 9 is overlapped with the very first of the movie, beginning with the last credit of the opening credits of the movie where David Lunch is, um, credited. And then the second and last part of Cirrus 9 is overlapped with the very end of the movie, up til the first credit and the end, which is Harry Dean Stanton.”

Pierre: “So, in essence, at the top, 4orrin1 is all about the Straight Story, or a retelling of this story. This is one of the 4 movies involved that makes the, um, hyperstory of the synch.”

Baker: “Yeah, I suppose so. The Straight Story is about an ordinary, common man who decides to make amends with his brother after the latter had a stroke. They’d argued about something petty while drunk ten years earlier and haven’t spoken to each other since. This common man is Iowan Alvin Straight, a very real flesh and blood person.”

Pierre: “Unlike our Henry here.”

Baker: “No, he’s real enough.” Henry fades from view in front of them. “Well, I suppose not (pause). Will he come back, do you suppose?”

Pierre: “Maybe if you call him Harry instead of Henry.”

“Harry, Haaaarrrry!” both call into the air; into the water. Henry/Harry fades back, same position.

Pierre: “Don’t say he’s not real again. We need him for comic relief.”

Harry (muttering): “Burma Dog’s best friend. Bestest friend in the wooorld.” He falls back asleep, snoring this time.

“Maybe we better put Harry to bed now and continue the interview later on tonight,” Pierre says. “Where’s Cammie? We might need her to chancel as well later on.”

“Okay. But remember to look at the creek again. Oh, I guess we’ve got to do this in the right order and all. Pierre, listen to me. Look at my mouth. Sit down now, again. Now… look at my mouth. Then look at the mouth of Bakers Creek. They are two separate things. Two separate things. Now close your eyes and then open them.”

Pierre (blinking): “Where’d I go?”

Baker: “Dean, why didn’t you tell us about the 1161 synchronicity?”

Pierre: “Yeah, why not?”

Dean: “What?”

“You must have known about it. It was reinforced several ways. First off, you faced 1161 batters in both 1967 and 1968. It must have struck you as at least funny that Bob Gibson, who had one of the greatest seasons for a pitcher of all time in 1968, faced the same amount of batters that you did.”

Pierre: “Yeah, what else are you hiding punk?”

Baker: “Jerk.”

Pierre: “Scumbucket.”

Dean: “Why, I wasn’t even conscious of it at the time.”

Baker: “Sure you weren’t. Dean Chance. With a name like that, like that…”

Pierre: “Here we sit here in the noon day sun at the mouth of Bakers Creek floating in a houseboat on Little Bayou Pierre and you’re keeping secrets from us. We’re all exposed. Everywhere you look there’s baker and Pierre. Strutt’n our stuff. But, no, little Dean has to have his dark side.”

Dean: “But it is dark. It’s the middle of the night!”

Baker: “No matter, bud.”

Dean: “Please, just leave me alone. I’m not even Dean Chance anymore, or any Chance at all, not the one from Ohio nor Arkansas nor kin to those two Chances that ran into each other on October 27, 1974.”

Baker: “So you know about that as well!”

Dean: “Please, I’m just a humble servant unit, filling a role. Biding my time until my big break. It was just a minor role.”

Pierre: “You were Cy Young award winner in 1964. For both leagues!”

Baker: “Perhaps we should sit down and just begin the interview over again. You’ve stared at the creek mouth (he nods his head toward the mouth of Bakers Creek) and are all ready with my fount of knowledge. Now I know this Bozo is a joker, true, but there’re bigger fish to fry today.”

Dean: “Tonight.”

Pierre: “I don’t see any moon. Do you baker? Just that big ol’ sun beating down on us. Merciless Mississippi mercenary.”

Baker (having a seat): “I’m going to read over the transcript from yesterday while you keep on with the rant, Pierre.”

Pierre: “Tell me Dean, have you ever wondered why the sun and the moon are almost exactly the same size to the visible eye? I think you have, just like you knew about the 1161 batters faced in both 1967 and 1968. I think you know a lot about twins, Mr. Former Minnesota Twin. I bet you still got your old uniform stashed in a closet back home, and parade around in it when the wife’s away, perhaps wearing her undergarments over top of it, eh?”

Dean: “I don’t have a house.”

Pierre (loudly): “Not true. You have a two story house in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Or should I say Hot Springs, North Carolina. I wouldn’t be surprised if the square footage of each story comes out to exactly 1161.”

Cammie (coming out on deck): “Hi guys!”

Baker: “Cammie. Just the psychic we were looking for. Here, pull up a chair. Pierre’s almost finished.”

Pierre (to Dean): “I’m not finished with you yet, Bozo. But, okay, I won’t gag you if you promise not tell us any more lies. But since that might be impossible, I expect you just to be quiet period, see?”

Cammie (to baker): “What’s going on?”

Baker: “Oh, just a little airing out session.”

Pierre (seating himself): “Hmph.” Then, under his breath: “Bozos.”

Baker: “We should have known by his shoes.”

Pierre: “Yeah.”

Cammie: “Oh.”

Baker: “So Cammie. As you know we’re beginning to talk about 4orrin1 in this interview, working, as we say, from the top down, drilling down back to SID’s 1st Oz whose analysis ended the first Pierre-baker interview, and ultimately going all the way back to Dark Side of the Rainbow itself.”

Cammie: “But it’s the middle of the day!”

Baker: “I know, we’ve already been through that. Now, pay attention so the time lines won’t shift again. We were talking about the frame for 4orrin1, the overlap of the very beginning and very end of the Straight Story movie by David Lunch with Pink Floyd’s song “Cirrus 9” [sic: “Cirrus Minor”], the first song off their early soundtrack, “More”.”

Cammie: “The frame. I see it now. Frame to a picture which is 4 pictures in one.”

Baker: “Yeah, that’s it. Is the frame blue?”

Cammie: “No. I mean, yes.”

Baker: “And inside the frame, the picture itself, what do you see?”

Cammie: “Swirls. Complicated.”

Baker: “That complication is what we’re trying to stretch out or unravel. Is it like a labyrinth?”

Cammie: “4orrin1.”

Baker: “Yes, that’s the name.”

Cammie: “Hyper… hyperstory. Straight. A mower. A man. A death.”

Baker: “I’m — we’re — going to ask you a couple of questions now, to focus our conversation. No, maybe we should broaden it out. Cammie, you know what the interview is about. It is about discussing the 2nd octave of the two octave Oz progression, as I told you over the phone earlier today. Do you remember that conversation?”

Cammie: “Yes baker. We talked for about 45 minutes and then I got on a plane from North Carolina.”

Baker: “Well, kind of…”

Cammie: “The stream. It’s trying to talk already. You think it is in the future but it’s the present.”

Baker: “Tile Creek?”

Cammie: “Issuing from Appalachian Spring. It’s the flow of a woman through a hyperstory. A third Dorothy. The girl has to endure the death of two fathers, but only one father was real.”

Pierre: “What do you think baker?”

Baker: “I think she’s talk about the Richard Farnsworth character in Anne of Green Gables. The other father, who appears at the first… is that the false father?”

Cammie: “Heart attack.”

Baker: “Yeah, in each case. But it really only happened once. The hyperstory.”

Cammie: “It’s why she went to Prince Edward Island and then she saw history repeat itself. She had to watch her two fathers die. Who’s [delete name]?”

Baker: “I suppose it could be one of two people. That’s my brother’s name.”

Cammie: “He wants to talk to you as well.”

Baker: “Did the… let me see… in the hyperstory of 4orrin1, the 4 pictures in 1, did the father die at the very beginning of the story? Is the whole story about his journey into death, and the realization that he died even though the event already took place?”

Cammie: “There was the one girl, Anne, and then another girl, Rose, and another, Petra [check name]. And then, it’s complicated.”

Baker: “Is it worth penetrating? Coz we can end this interview at any time. All I have to do is snap my fingers. I can make the moon go down and the sun come up in a heartbeat.”

Cammie: “That’s the problem.”

baker: “Huh?”

Cammie: “You are, by nature a controller. Controller of the environment, like [delete name].”

Cammie: “Yes, it’s Pierre’s turn now, I think. I want to see this anyway.”

baker: “Well, first I have to make the sun come back up. There.”

Pierre: “There’s Dean!”

Dean: “Hi! Where’d I go?”

baker (ignoring Dean): “Then Pierre has to stare at my mouth and then at the mouth of Bakers Creek. It’s pretty neat, actually.”

Cammie (seeing Pierre staring at baker’s mouth, then): “Oh.”

baker: “And then he stares at the mouth of Bakers Creek over yonder and then that’s it.”

Cammie and baker both look at Pierre, who turns his head to his left and begins to stare at the appropriate creek mouth.

baker: “Shouldn’t be but just a minute.”

Pierre (suddenly): “Cooling system. Great work baker. 11-61-11-61 and all that. 1 and 6. 61. Off on.” He pause for a second. “Heat cold. Night day. White… black.” He smacks his lips.

Dean: “Is he fooling with us?”

baker: “Pierre, Pierre. Do you wish to talk as well about 4orrin1?”

Pierre (smacks lips again): “Cammie knows.”

baker: “Well, yes, we were talking about Dump and the last three planets of the solar system. Do you have anything to add to what she was saying?”

Pierre: “It’s not Pluto. It’s Sirius. The Dog Star. It fell from the sky.”

baker: “Oh.” (to Cammie): “Um, I think he may be talking about The Truman Show now.” (to Pierre): “Are you talking about… ?”

Pierre: “Way up there.” He stares toward sky.

baker (to Cammie): “Ahhh. I think he is referring to Cirrus 9 [sic] the song that begins and ends 4orrin1. It begins in the nighttime sky and ends in same. Chorus of birds in each case. Cirrus is the same as Sirius. (to Pierre): Are you talking about Cirrus?”

Pierre: “The Big Four.”

baker (to Cammie): “This is a reference to a town in West Virginia that is called Big Four but is also known as Cirrus. It seems to have something to do directly with 4orrin1.”

Cammie: “Oh.”

baker : “Pierre, does 4orrin1, the complication of 4orrin1, the Big Four, the overall picture of pictures, does it come from Sirius? Is that what you’re saying?”

Pierre (imitating a character in 4orrin1): “I mean it’s pretty and all, but there ain’t nothing there. Nothing.”

Pierre (imitating Ringo taking Nowhere Man’s hand to lead him somewhere at the end of Dark Side of the Yellow Submarine): “‘Come on, I’ll take you somewhere.’. Needle lowers, record begins again. Heartbeats swell. Life.”

baker: “Sirius is the Land of the Dead, then?”

Cammie: “Oh.”

Pierre (quickly): “Sirius.”

In talking so close together, it comes out like Oh-Sirius, or Osiris. Baker gets the message.

baker: “We’re talking about where we go when we die.”

Dean: “Jesus.”

Pierre and baker both look at Dean.

baker (to Pierre): “Are you saying that 4orrin1 is all about death? That the characters, perhaps, are all dead? Beyond our solar system? Not bound by our laws of cause and effect and fate anymore? Outside of time? The sacred mushroom found and all?”

Pierre: “Fanfare for the Common Man. Crossing the Great Divide. The Red Line which makes what was formerly one into two. Life and death. Earth and Oz. New and Jas. The new city. Reincarnation. 61. 11-61-11-61.” He looks at Dean.

baker: “This is good. We’re getting somewhere. Cammie, do you need a drink of some kind? When Pierre’s under, he’s under until I bring him out. No need to worry about that. Would you like a blackberry spritzer? Or perhaps something harder?”

Dean: “Is she going to go under again, though?”

baker: “How do you know about that? You were gone.”

Dean: “No I wasn’t. I was right here. Sitting here.”

Pierre: “Perhaps we should end baker. My regular self wants to get back to tormenting this impossible jerk. I have no animosity toward the fellow myself, but I feel the tug of irrational emotions.”

baker: “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Get ready, Dean. Here we come again. Let me get Cammie a drink and we’re on you like tick planets orbiting a dog star.” He gets up. “Do you want anything Pierre?”

Pierre: “Wait til I come out and then ask me.”

(tape turns off).

baker: “Harry, er, Dean. I think we’re going to have to let you go from this production. Sorry.”

Dean: “But why?”

Pierre: “We’ve run out of ideas for you. 1161 only goes so far… so far.”

Dean: “What if… what if I provided the answers you need? Yeah. Huh? I… I am the harbinger of all answers here on that number.”

Pierre: “No deal, bud. I’m a chancellor, and I can’t penetrate it. It’s attached to something else. Give us something real meaty, something non-1161 that 1161 is attached to — I know that anyway — and we’ll let you stay. Perhaps you won’t be as *central* as you were before, but we’ll keep you.”

Dean: “Well, uh…”

Pierre: “You don’t know anything do you. Get out.”

Dean: “Huh?”

baker: “Off!”

Pierre: “Out!” Pierre pushes Dean over the rail of the boat, but no splooshing is heard in the water, as would be normal. Dean simply is not anymore in this realm.

Pierre: “Now we can get on. Is Cammie still around?”

baker: “Pierre we need to focus more. We’re doing a horrible job of describing 4orrin1. We’re acting like this is a Space Ghost episode with nothing to say.”

Pierre: “I don’t get that impression. About the “nothing to say” part, I mean.”

baker: “Okay, but we’ve got to make a pact to get to some points each day. Set some goals. We’re just adrift here on Little Bayou Pierre, tethered to the mouth of Bakers Creek. After all, according to the parameters we’ve set up, we can’t move out of sight of this mouth.”

baker: “I mean, I see that and I don’t see that.” He glances over at the Bakers Creek mouth.

Pierre: “What is it trying to tell ya? Huh?” A noise emits from the direction of Bakers Creek. “Look baker, it’s Dean. He’s trying to tell us something.” Baker looks the wrong way. “No, over there. At the mouth of the creek. Maybe he found the 1161 connecting link.”

baker: “I can’t understand what he’s saying.”

Suddenly, Dean materializes on the boat again; takes a deep breath.

Pierre: “You found something?”

Dean (still panting): “There’s an island. Floats up and down the creek.”

baker: “Mysterious Island. Been there, done that.”

Pierre: “That’s what you were trying to say to us?”

Dean: “The island… the island is a planet. There’s something on the island. I will leave a clue there tomorrow.”

Pierre: “What the…?”

baker: “I might know what he’s talking about. A creek, in a way, is similar to a road. Same blueish tint, same bearer of flow… cars, people, boats. He’s talking about an island in a road. I know where this is!”

Cammie (appearing on deck): “Sorry, did I miss something? I took a nap and just couldn’t wake up.”

Pierre: “Probably tired because of all the chancelling. Dean might have another clue for us all.”

baker: “No but it’s in the immediate vicinity. Not probably 4 miles from here. But perhaps the spirit of Tile is still with us here. There’s no reason to believe that the water spirit cannot move around to immediate streams especially.”

Pierre: “Is this part of the same water system?”

baker: “Let’s see, it’s part of the [delete stream system]. The South Fork, that’s us.”

Cammie: “Well never mind even, it’s still beautiful.”

Dean (gruffly): “Must admit it’s pretty.”

Pierre: “So what are we here for baker? Why the change of scenery?”

Baker stands to one side, the rest sit at a *picnic* table overlooking a small but very scenic waterfall in the middle of the woods that baker claims is not far form the Appalachian Tile Creek.

Baker: “Well I just think we need to focus. Several things, actually. A recouping at this point. Now, first, about Dean. It seems that, for some reason, we need him; can’t get rid of him. As Edna was saying this morning…”

Pierre: “So you went home first. Before coming here?”

baker: “Er, right. So Edna was telling me that there must be a reason Dean keeps coming back into the picture. (to Dean): So we’ve agreed — right, Pierre? — to make peace with you and make you part of our little team. Like in the movie we saw last night [The Life Aquatic], where the Izouso team selected a new member but all didn’t agree, but came to accept him. So we’re like that team headed by the Bill Murray character.”

Pierre: “So I guess you’re like Bill Murray, then… here. From the movie, I mean.”

baker: “Well, I think in this particular meeting, yeah, I have to be a team leader right now because I feel a responsibility to draw everything together to make a new attack into… into whatever we’re trying to attack.”

Pierre: “A giant spotted fish?”

baker (laughs): “Perhaps. But what we’re trying to say first off, Dean, is that we’re [attempting] to accept you. We don’t still know who you are or why you are here, but if you want to join…”

Dean (cutting in): “Let me think about it. I’m not big on commitments. The first wife left me because she didn’t think I had a big enough bat. Weighed really heavily toward the pitching end.”

Pierre: “I’ve been meaning to ask you about that Dean. Why you were such a notoriously bad hitter among the better pitchers that have come along?”

baker: “Well, okay. We can certainly accept that, the way we’ve treated you at times. Think about it. So moving on to Cammie: Cammie, you’re not as familiar with 4orrin1 and the newer synchs as Pierre and I are, but you’ve always been a supporter in this area. That and the strong psychic component is why we asked you to come along for this trip.”

Cammie: “I realize I have other commitments, but I have to admit this has been a nice break from work. How long do you think — I mean, I’m enjoying all this, but…” She raises her eyebrows. “How much longer?”

baker: “Don’t know yet. But getting back to 4orrin1 and the newer synchs, I sense you are having difficulty penetrating the labyrinth from the outside. You see complication; a swirl of colors; are unable to unravel it all. And I think this is where we need Dean. Dean seems to be the key to all the pieces falling together now. I don’t know how… well, actually I have an idea which I will get to in a moment. But the point here is that you, Cammie, need help in penetrating these newer, more complicated synchs. I think we’re going to have to hitch a ride with an island.”

All look at baker, including Dean, who’d been looking down all this time.

Pierre: “What island? Are you talking about the one Dean found yesterday? His so-called floating… okay, I’m sorry Dean. The floating island he *did* find.”

Cammie (shaking head): “I — I didn’t know about any island.”

Pierre: “We’ll explain in a moment.”

baker: “Okay, let me do this in order. So we’re at Pierre. Pierre is closest to me in many ways… represents, actually, a direct extension of me, a replacement of me, even, because of the sale of all of these newer synchs to him for 3 dollars. As you know, he paid me one buck apiece for the syncs Billfork, Head Trip, and 4orrin1, because each contains a solid core of Firesign Theatre, which he really digs, and so do I and so does Cammie, actually. Dean, had you listened to Firesign Theatre before seeing Head Trip the other day?”

Dean: “Nope. Still thinking about it.”

baker: “Okay, fair enough. So now Pierre didn’t think the other synchs were worth any money, since he can’t legally do anything with them, you see. This is everything after SID’s 1st Oz, or everything after the last interview we held, including Quadrospirited, which was found in the middle of that interview.”

Cammie: “I enjoyed Quadrospirited. Enough to pay a dollar for it Pierre.”

Pierre shrugs. “It was good, just not good enough. What can I say? Baker’s already accepted the deal. He’s signed in blood… all that gobuldey gook.”

baker: “It doesn’t matter. Pierre’s right: all of these are his now. And I was even grateful enough to have them off my hands and into his that I told him I would manage a second interview. So here we are. And, by golly, I’m going to see it through. Now, back to the island. Dean, why don’t you tell Cammie about the island you found.”

Dean (low voice, after a pause): “I found an island in Bakers Creek.”

baker: “Louder please Dean.”

Dean: “I found a fucking island in your fucking creek baker!” (turning to Cammie again): “It was… beautiful. Fractal. All the colors of the rainbow.”

Pierre: “Could it have been some kind of fish?”

Dean: “No, dammit! It was a fucking island.”

Baker: “No need for foul language here, Dean. Just tell us the facts and I’ll share some further ideas on it.”

Dean: “Always sharing further ideas aren’t you baker.”

Pierre: “Baker, I’m not sure this is…”

Dean: “Goddammit! Let him have his say.”

baker (after a pause, and then to fill the pause with sound): “So to back up a bit, Dean was invited from Arkansas because we perhaps mistakenly thought he was Dean Chance, winner of the Cy Young award in 1964. We, Pierre and I, found out he was just an on-line double… found him playing gin at an online site and claiming to be a pitcher from the early 60s that seemed to fit the description of Dean Chance. When Pierre asked him directly if he was Dean Chance he didn’t answer. So we went and got him.”

Cammie: “You kidnapped him.”

baker: “Well, in a manner. We knew his address because he wasn’t hiding it online. We found out he was a D. Chance, so we figured we had our man.”

Pierre (ignoring Dean): “We, in Star Trek terms, teleported him here. But he can still leave at any time. I think.”

Cammie: “You can do that?”

Pierre: “*Baker* can do that. It’s his story, after all. My synchs; his interview.”

baker: “I’ve retained all rights to the interview. That was part of the bargain.”

Dean: “How’s that working out, by the way?”

baker (trying to control anger): “Dean, you know, like Pierre said, you can leave at any time…”

Dean: “I’m still thinking about it.”

baker: “I mean, we brought you here, but now that you have the power yourself….”

Dean: “Yeah, thanks a lot for that, by the way.”

Pierre: “Will you stop ending all your sentences with… I mean, um, go on baker.” Dean is scowling at him, then stops and turns toward baker to listen again.

baker: “So Dean, do you feel like telling us about the island?”

Dean: “Not sure.”

baker “Well, Pierre, do you want to tell what you know or do you want me to?”

Pierre (shrugs): “It’s your interview.”

Cammie (suddenly a chancellor): “I saw it. When I froze up. I just remembered.”

Pierre: “She’s been triggered, baker. Look at her eyes.”

baker: “Go ahead Cammie. What do you see?”

Cammie: “An island — floating, just as Dean said, and heading right for me — coming out of the mouth of Baker’s Creek. It… it was a monster.”

Pierre: “Oh my God baker. We’re back on the houseboat… and there’s the monster!”

Cammie: “I see into the future. We survive, but we realize that no man is an island after this for sure.”

The monster moves to engulf the ship. It is spotted, like the fish in the movie last night.

“Slap her Pierre!” baker screams. “Get her out of the trance. Her reality has taken over!”

Baker also notices that Dean is smiling through the panic. Pierre goes and slaps Cammie — hard. Just as the fish is about to swallow the boat Cammie snaps out of the trance, feels her jaw, which has turned red. They are back at the overlook on the mountain creek. Very calm, where just a second before was chaos all around.

baker: “Pierre, you know this is from 4orrin1. That 4orrin1 has somehow exteriorized into our environment.”

Pierre: “Is this a good thing, I must ask at this moment? Well I think it is certain good that it has ended.”

Cammie (wide eyed): “What happened?”

Pierre then examines Cammie. “I had to slap you. You were manifesting a reality. A reality with that monster.”

Cammie slowly shakes her head. “Yes I was. Thank you.”

baker: “I think we know now that whatever that island really is, and I doubt it is a monster, actually, well, that’s the key.”

Dean begins to laugh.

Pierre: “Why don’t you shut up. We were almost killed, gol darnit!”

Dean: “No you weren’t, you little fucker.”

Pierre: “Baker, we really, really have to think this team thing over again.”

baker: “Maybe it’s Cammie’s fear manifesting here. She did say earlier that she though I was too controlling. And, frankly, I didn’t get… well, I think she still may be scared.”

Pierre: “It’s an island that’s not an island, just like Sirius was not really Sirius in the Truman Show. It was just a spotlight in the sky, and when it fell in front of Truman, his reality began to break down.”

baker: “Yeah, no man is an island.”

Pierre: “One answer: we are being observed from the outside!”

baker: “Then this changes everything. I think we were wrong in leaving the houseboat. Pierre, you cannot, for one, make the two mouths into one mouth and become a fellow chancellor with Cammie. This perhaps makes us too dependent upon her, and when something goes wrong…”

Pierre: “We’re out of balance.”

baker: “We were vulnerable. Perhaps we can’t go back to Mississippi. Perhaps the houseboat was really destroyed.”

Pierre: “Us in a parallel reality.”

A purple martin alights upon the edge of the lookout, carrying what appears to be a tulip in its beak. Pierre moves to the bird and removes the tulip, instinctively giving it to Cammie.

“This is the monster again,” Cammie says.

baker: “Zak. Zak was his name.”

Pierre: “I’m sorry to tell you, baker, but this rock face is only getting higher and our path more narrow. And you’re still sticking to your story: that this is the way back to your house… or to Tile Creek.”

baker: “This is the way around Yarrell Knob. But I remember the rocks were on the other side of the mountain. We must have taken the wrong fork in the gap, although I’m sure I triple checked. These rocks… larger. But it still should lead us around and to town.”

Cammie: “Oooooh.” She jars a rock loose from the edge of the path; it tumbles down the steep cliff to their right.

Dean is sweating profusely, scared of heights. “I’m doing the fuck alright. Just pay attention… to where we’re going and get me the fuck out of this place. And don’t talk like I’m not here and can’t answer fucking questions!”

Baker stops and stares at Dean. “But the worse news: look behind him! The path behind us is even steeper than the path ahead now!”

All pause to look behind them, verifying to themselves what baker has just exposed.

Pierre: “Something has to give. I don’t know what but something. A breaking point has been reached. The air is solid with tension.”

Dean: “Shouldn’t be dark this fucking early either. You’ve never explained that either.”

baker: “Yet we can still see. Just like on the boat.”

Dean: “Well, I don’t think we have to worry about that boat now.”

Pierre: “There’s a good possibility the boat isn’t destroyed.”

baker: “Yes, I agree. We don’t know that yet.”

Cammie: “I sense somehow it is still there.”

Pierre: “…waiting… waiting.”

Baker struggles with a grip; the path is ascending more steeply.

Pierre: “Baker, why don’t you tell us more about my synchs. Billfork, Head Trip, 4orrin1. I know you have this all in your head. Might help distract us. And if you’re at least partly manifesting this reality, talking about something familiar and reassuring might ease the tension.”

Cammie: “Yeah, baker. Begin the begin and tell us about Billfork. I still haven’t seen that in full. Isn’t that (grunts) where your platinum stuff begins?”

Just then, Dean slips and rocks fall to his right. Then he falls down the steep cliff himself. “Ahhhhhhhhhh!” he goes. But instead of a despicable splat at the bottom when he hits, they hear a sploosh, as if he’s entered water. Instead of looking over the side of a cliff they are suddenly back on the Port Gibson houseboat in broad daylight. The monster, which is seemingly about to engulf the boat; teeth bared — same position that it was in when Pierre slapped Cammie to end her trance — is instead distracted by the struggling Pierre, who is trying to swim away but instead becomes engulfed by the massive mouth. Waves rock the boat, almost hurling the 3 onlookers overboard as well. But the rail saves them. The monster then turns toward the mouth of Bakers Creek and submerges.

Baker, Pierre and Cammie stand dumbfounded on the edge of the boat, clinging to the guard rail. They watch the silhouette of the monster beneath the waves, seemingly getting smaller than mere perspective would allow as it nears the creek. Then it is gone altogether.

Pierre: “Hmph. So that’s what was suppose to happen.”

NOTES:

Is this the end of the “interview”? Will baker begin to write Pierre now about his synchs, beginning with Billfork and moving through Head Trip to the massive 4orrin1? Why was Dean swallowed… why did he manifest on the boat in the first place… drive from Hot Springs, Arkanasas which may be the same as Hot Springs, North Carolina? Is Dean still alive, somehow, in the belly of the fish? Are there more adventures for them waiting ahead?

Dean is like Baron von Munchhausen, swallowed by a monster which they first thought was an island. Same here in the interview… Dean said that he had found an island, but it was floating. Perhaps when he found the monster it was much smaller, and became larger when it entered Little Bayou Pierre.

Pierre (writing):

Dear Baker. I think I’m falling for Cammie. I know that she may never go for me in the way she goes for [delete name]. But I think I’ll still love her anyway. Love her. Lover. It was when Dean fell over the cliff and into the water that I realized it. I knew that he would die, and then when I saw that he lived, only to die a bigger death second later, and the way Cammie reacted to the situation… calm and collected, as usual. Taking it all in stride, as if she foresaw the whole thing and was merely acting a role.

Am I crazy for doing this all over again?

Pierre.

Baker (writing back):

Well, Pierre. Sounds like you are distracted from your 3 dollar purchase for sure! I do think that Cammie is taken, although I wouldn’t have said that 6 months ago. You are 3 dollars too late and too short. We should perhaps focus on the dollar children now… the synchronicities. You perhaps already have enough responsibilities. And someone else will come along.

You’re confusing two types of falls, it seems. Falling for somebody and watching somebody fall. Don’t worry: it most likely happens every once in a while.

Baker.

Pierre (writing back):

I can’t help the way I feel. If it is unrequited love, so be it. The two falls happening simultaneously is just synchronicity. I want to be eaten alive as well. 😉

Pierre.

Baker:

You should focus on the work. Perhaps the Great Work. Synchronicity. It’s the future for both of us. Your synchs, my interview. We’ll be rich. In psychic terms, I mean, if not physical ones. 4orrin1 is itself a monster, perhaps the ravenous one you desire.

Baker.

Pierre’s letter:

We have to track that monster. We have to take the ship into Bakers Creek. That’s the only solution. We have to find out what that monster is about, then. Is it unrequitable love? Is it 4orrin1? We must find out. Chart a course.

Baker’s reply:

How are we going to fit in that creek?

Pierre’s reply:

Same way we jump realities. The monster seemed to grow smaller as it neared the creek’s mouth. My guesstimation has it that the boat will as well. Then I’ll also have more time with Cammie. To make a decision. Whether to come out with her. Right now, if it ends, it’s just me and you buddy, talking about synchs in the day night and night day. Plus I guess we should probably go try to rescue Dean if there’s a Chance he’s still alive. And with a name like that, there most likely is.

Pierre.

baker’s letter:

We could head toward the creek’s mouth to see what happens. Leaving room to pull back if necessary.

Pierre:

There you go. But I fear that once we start we’ll have to see it through. So we end now or continue. All that’s left is trying to explain it to Cammie.

baker:

We’ll tell her together. There’s no tube in her room.

*****

So baker and Pierre talk to Cammie about following the monster inside Bakers Creek. And Cammie states she needs to get back to her job but that this is more important. Truth is, Cammie is in love with Dean, despite his vulgarity and lack of batting adeptness. Perhaps the imbalance between pitching and batting skills, offense and defense, is what makes him so attractive in the first place. I don’t think Cammie loves Dean, though, as lover and lover. It is like she is loving all humanity through him. The obvious gaping flaw. She decides to take a Chance on him

It was day 3 after entering the mouth of Bakers Creek that they found the “monster”, or a monster anyway. It was in the middle of a swamp-like part of the creek, perhaps midway between mouth and spring source. Only the top part of the monster was visible, although one could tell it was much larger than shown because of the size of its head.

baker: “Has a little of the colorings of a jellyfish on top, don’t you think? Translucent… looked like the inside of an albedo shell I use to have (name?). Or like the colors swirling around in soap film. You know what I’m talking about? The colors seem so vivid and alive, but perhaps its because it’s an overcast day.

Pierre: “Been overcast since we entered this creek. Baker, don’t you have any emotional coloring yourself?”

baker (shrugging): “Guess not much.”

Pierre: “Here’s what you are. In the center. A beautiful, complex monster of swirling colors like oil film. This is you baker.”

Cammie: “I must agree with Pierre here on this one. I never thought it was about 4orrin1 per se. It’s about you. This is your creek.”

Pierre: “Careful not to get too close to it. We want to let sleeping dogs lie at this point.”

Cammie: “It is beautiful.” They could see the very large face underwater now. It was apparent to all on board that the face bore a strong resemblance to their Dean Chance, who had supposedly been swallowed by the same not 3 days before.

Cammie (to Pierre): “Look. See?”

Pierre: “Yes. baker can you see it from your angle? I dare not begin to row again. The head is only about 10 feet underwater, and almost directly below us.”

Cammie: “I wonder if it has absorbed so much of Dean’s personality that it can rationally talk to us now?”

Pierre: “Can you use your chancelling powers to find out?”

Cammie: “It is you who are in perpetual chancellorhood now. Ever since we entered the mouth. Until we leave this creek you cannot stare at its mouth again and come back out. You are taking a supreme risk, though.”

Pierre: “Well, I… uh, I have a reason.” He looks at baker.

Cammie: “Very unselfish.”

Pierre: “This might be a very inappropriate place to bring this up, but, I mean, uh…”

Cammie: “What a beautiful face on the monster. I thought Dean’s face was beautiful but this is moreso. I can see living with this monster through oblivion. Someone else might call it a distortion of humanity, even grotesque. But just as I see Steve Buscemi as a hottie, so do I see this face and this monster as same. I could stay here forever. In this swamp, on this creek, with the monster who, erasing moon, might be a man. I could turn him back. One kiss with my two lips, perhaps.

Pierre is taken aback by Cammie’s smittenness with the seemingly very dangerous monster just beneath them. “Well, uh, I don’t know what to say!”

Cammie: “We have to be very still. Very still. The monster sleeps now only to be awakened by a kiss.”

The head floated toward the surface now, as if Cammie was psychokenetically attracting it to her through desire; then it broke the surface, but still asleep. Cammie reached over the side of the low part of the boat, which was much shorter now. She reached down and gently, lovingly took the head, which did not awaken, and planted a kiss on its oily cheek. The head of the monster, which now looked like a dragon, shot skyward as the neck emerged from the water, but the figure quickly shortened both top and bottom to become Dean again, who made a short drop in the water, perhaps about the same length as when he was pushed overboard by baker and Pierre earlier in our story. And, once again, there was no sploosh heard. They were instantly transported to another reality.

They were back on the cliffside where Dean fell several nights earlier. Cammie was about to offer Dean the tulip from her pocket, the one that, when he attempted to grab it, made him fall. But this time she withdrew the flower, and saved Dean in the process. The path became better after that, and soon they had reached Blue Mountain and baker’s home for regrouping.

*****

At baker’s house they were all just more or less staring at each other. Awkwardness abounded. Baker realized that Pierre was infatuated with Cammie and not his synchs he had sold him for 3 dollars. Pierre realized that Cammie perhaps loved Dean and not him. Dean realized that Pierre, all along, unconsciously resented him for this, and also baker resented him because he was taking time from the discussion of his synchs in this interview.

Edna walked in with refreshments.

Edna: “Answer me baker. Is 4orrin1 not the same as SID’s 1st Oz?”

Baker (mechanically, like a robot): “4orrin1 *is* the same as SID’s 1st Oz.”

Edan: “And if someone asks you, what is 4orrin1 about.?”

baker: “It is the combination of 4 or 5 whole pieces of media to cover a single other media.”

“And what are the 4 or 5 pieces referring to.?”

baker: “Um… er… movies.”

Edna reaches over from the other couch and playfully slaps baker on the knee.

She prompts for a correction. “What are they *referring to*?”

baker: “Albums. Albums. What’d I say. Movies?” He hits his head with hand. “Duh! Albums.”

Edna: “That’s right, because you have your SID’s 1st Oz which is just as good.”

baker: “24K gold. Or is it 23? 21? Anyway, any alchemist worth their weight in lead knows that gold is the ultimate goal. Look at Rumplestilskin.”

Edna: “I think that was about hair.”

baker: “But it was golden hair.”

Edna: “What-ever.”

Baker: “Hey, where’s Pierre?” He looks around on couch, under couch.” Where’d he go?”

Edna: “Baker!”

Baker: “I mean, he was here just a minute ago.” Baker’s eyes then get wide: “TUCKER.”

Edna: “NO, leave Tucker out of this. Tucker hasn’t taken anything or anyone from us in a long, long time. Remember?”

Baker (innocently): “Yeah. But where’s Pierre then?”

Edna shrugs and throws up arms to indicate she doesn’t know.

Baker: “And — and Cammie! They were both sitting on the couch. Oh, it’s coming back to me now. You brought out refreshments, and then Dean started to fade out because that’s what he does now and then. He just does. And then Cammie… They ran off to Hot Springs, North Carolina and got married! He looks confused again. “Or else Hot Springs, Arkansas.”

Baker keeps going. “Cammie tracked down Dean, to where-ever he disappeared off to, and proposed perhaps, and Dean took her up on it and now they’re honeymooning in Hot Springs, um, *where-ever* — and Pierre is tracking them down.”

“Does he have a shotgun?” Edna asks innocently.

Baker gives Edna a look of disgust. “No, of course not. What do you take my friend for?”

Edna: “I thought you hated Pierre.”

Baker: “Nah, no, ‘course not. It’s all fun and games.” He turns serious again. “But, you see, because he stole my synchronicities now I have to track down Pierre, and, um… ”

Edna: “NO, you’re not going to kill Pierre.”

Baker: “Of course not. Those days are long gone.”

Enda: “Kiss Pierre, not kill.”

Baker and Edna together: “Eeww!”

Baker: “Hmmm, but maybe that’s a thought. I could marry Pierre — just pretend, you see…” Edna gets a concerned look on her face. “I mean, I’d still be married to you in real life, of course.”

Baker: “Maybe we should even warn Cammie. I mean, if she loves Dean Chance, the monster man. I mean, Pierre’s pretty persistent. That’s why he was able to make a deal with me. About my synchronicities.”

Edna: “Nighty night.”

Baker: “I hate him. No, I love him. Something in-between.”

Edna: “I’ll tell you what. If you get in bed and pull up the covers, I’ll call Cammie tomorrow and check up on Pierre, okay?”

Baker: “I guess this can wait until tomorrow. You promise?”

Edna (nodding): “Yeah. Let’s get you in bed. Are you finished with your beer here. Let’s put that in the trash like a good boy.” She holds up baker while he’s walking toward the bedroom, even though he’s only had 1 beer.

Was talking about Pierre. He’s misplaced again. But I think baker tracks him down in Orrin, North Dakota. In his dreams, as Edna advised. He’s there with his colored chalk, drawing letters on the streets. Baker visits his apartment in town there. He has a very large terrarium with two turtles named Max and Pierre (>), Flo? And has been letting them loose on the streets at times. They retreat into their shell upon placed as such.

He’s resigned that he can’t have Cammie right now, and that she’s off on her honeymoon with Dean Chance per chance, perhaps turned into some kind of half human half monster herself. Perhaps they are vacationing in Bakers Creek… “Wouldn’t that be ironic,” Pierre says.

“Perhaps best not to think about it,” Baker suggests.

Baker then tells Pierre that 4orrin1 is the same as SID’s 1st OZ and there is nothing else beyond it.

Pierre: “Whatever you wish.”

Baker: “You don’t have nada, then.”

Pierre: “Whatever.”

Baker: “Do you know why I’m doing this?”

Pierre: “Because you want to forget the suffering. No, sorry. Yeah, I know. I am part of you, remember? The letters I draw; the tiles of 4orrin1. So I know.”

Baker: “Have you figured anything else out yet? I mean, you’ve been focused on your art lately and I’ve just been… how long have you been here, anyway?”

Pierre: “‘Bout a month and a half. The Pierre that went to Port Gibson and then began chasing after Cammie was a slightly different Pierre than me. So the Pierre you’re particularly looking for is, in that sense, still at large. I’m someone a little different. A little (shakes hand to indicate “a little”). I haven’t met Cammie so I don’t know whether I would be smitten or not, given different circumstances. So I won’t be distracted by thoughts of Cammie and can help you more with quote 4orrin1 unquote. Stay here with me and I can help you.”

Baker (thinking about what he said to Edna about marrying Pierre): “You want me to stay in this apartment.”

Pierre: “For one month. Maybe two. We’ll start the interview over again. It takes place, in terms of creative evolution, almost immediately after Pierre-baker [interview] no. 1 ended. Here in 4orrin1, er, Orrin, it will be different. You’ll see. We’ll get a lot of work done.”

Baker: “Pierre, do you still like Butchie in this reality?”

Pierre: “No I’m beyond her.”

Baker: “How ’bout, um, Gwynn. Gwen?”

Pierre: “You mean Guin? We’re still friends. I got a letter from her just yesterday. But we’re just friends as well. And same might be true for me and Cammie, if I knew her in this reality.”

Baker: “But, ahem, you still like women who are not like Butchie and Guin in this reality. I mean, given the chance.”

Pierre: “If you’re asking if I’m gay in this reality, I don’t think so. I haven’t had any thoughts of men in that way if that helps.”

Baker: “Because I just want to get it out up front that I’m not that way as well.”

Pierre: “You mean you’re not gay. Baker, we have a working relationship. I am your syncher friend, your main buddy in that area. We don’t have to talk about this. I’m uncomfortable, you’re uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to be brought up. Neither of us are against that type of love but don’t have any desire — yet — to participate in it ourselves. Just because I’m unattached right now doesn’t mean I’ll be switching teams to enlarge my field. As far as I can tell, I’m a pure woman’s man. We’ll work at work. At synching. That’s what we’re here for.”

Baker: “If this wasn’t a dream, it probably wouldn’t get brought up at all.”

Pierre: “Right.”

Baker (sensing that they should stop talking about it): “How about if I call Edna and tell her that I’ve found you and that you’d like to talk to Cammie. Just to talk to her in this reality as well and see if there are any sparks.”

Pierre: “And what if we hit it off (again)? Then we couldn’t get down to work; I’d be all obsessed, just like the reality you exited. Do you want that?”

Baker: “Admittedly, no.”

Pierre: “So let’s get down to work. Put your stuff in that other room there, the one opposite mine in the hallway. Sorry in advance if it seems a little cramped.”

Baker: “Well, uh, I forgot to bring anything. I guess I’ll just have to materialize what I need as I go along.”

Pierre: “That’s fine. That’s acceptable as well, certainly. Oh wait, I can do it for you. That would be the proper guest-like thing to do. Here (bag materializes on the bed): here’s a bag with toiletries, change of clothes, about everything you need. If you need anything else let me know. Do you need colored chalk as well?”

Baker (laughs): “I’ll let you handle that.”

Pierre: “All the colors of the rainbow, I have.”

Baker (getting the joke): “Okay, okay, I get it. Funny. We each get our own chalk. I’ll buy/manifest/whatever my own if needed.”

Pierre: “It will be a man’s world for a while. Buddy bonding. What kind of beer do you like?”

Baker: “Um, I like Coors. The tall cans.”

Pierre: “Then the refrigerator is already stocked.”

Baker: “I prefer to buy them one at a time. To control what I consume each night better, you see.”

Pierre: “Then there’s only one right now. I’ll personally take control of manifesting beer in the refrigerator and ban you from it unless you tell me otherwise or change the order. One a night.”

Baker: “That sounds good.”

Pierre: “What else do you want? We can put literally anything you can think of in here, almost. Even things that haven’t been invented yet. ”

Baker: “A “synch machine”… whatever that is. The thing where you can insert the needed CDs and videos and let the elements combine in the proper way in real time to create a manipulated synch.”

Pierre: “We have to be careful to limit this just to 4orrin1.”

Baker: “Well, that’s the most important one, so who cares!”

Pierre: “Good man. Edna taught you well.”

Baker: “Right on.”

Pierre: “So we’ll take a tour of town. I’ll show you the letters, where they are, and you’ll see the whole town that way. We might even go up to Orr, North Dakota through the portal on [delete street] to see the non-colored numbers as well, although it’s not as exciting.

“Pierre, could we go there first?”

Pierre: “Sure baker. Anything you wish.”

“Do they have any good coffee shops in either of these two towns? I know Orrin’s not very big, and Orr is even smaller, so I don’t hold out any hope of one there.”

Pierre: “Well, believe it or not Orrin has a first rate coffee shop complete with all flavors, sizes and strengths of lattes. Good customer service. It’s a Muslim run store, though… hope you don’t mind.”

Baker: “Not at all. The coffee and friendliness of service are key for me. Let’s go check *that* out first, then.”

Pierre: “No problem. Get packed away and we’re off. Then we’ll come back and talk some serious synch talk during the night.”

Pierre thinks he looks a little like the Elephant Man. Not nearly as grotesque but there’s a resemblance. He turns to baker, giving an obviously concerned look. “What do you think Baker? Should we let him in?”

Dean: “I won’t be any problem atall. I’ll just lay on the couch and sleep. Must recoup… energy. Must hide, recoup, energy. Remember the pact. Remember you said I could be part of your team.”

Baker: “Not in this timeline, though.”

Dean: “You don’t know what timeline this is. There is no time, really. It’s all lattice work. It’s all chance. Chancelloring. Chancel and non-chancel. Filtering. Screening.”

Pierre and baker shrug. “What can they do?” they both think. “Okay, Dean. You lay down on the couch while baker and I go out on the town. Perhaps towns… if we can find the portal. You rest here. Recoup, as you say. Recoup all you want. We’ll get more of your story tonight.”

Baker: “Pierre, I would suggest that Dean doesn’t leave the apartment as well. You look… well, you don’t look yourself. Or perhaps this is more yourself than you revealed to us. Half man and half monster. Is there a full moon by chance?”

Dean: “Riiiiiiiight. Must rest. Get out of the heat of the moon!” He staggers in the door and collapses on Pierre’s couch.

Dean is breathing heavily on the couch. Kind of like Elephant Man husks of breaths again, but not as pronounced.

Pierre: “Okay, we’re gone then.”

Baker: “See ya.”

Dean breathes. The two shut the door. Dean holds breath, then breaths some more. Then he gets up. Then he… he becomes the apartment.

scene: Abdul Jabbar’s Coffee Emporium,
Orrin North Dakota, 2005

those in scene: extras, Pierre, baker

Pierre has, shortly before, stared at baker’s mouth, and then at the mouth of a baker (one who was baking the morning muffins that he spied across the counter talking to a cashier). He thus becomes Pierre Times Tin again, since the trigger is the overlap of two mouths of baker. Pierre and baker are pleasantly surprised and reassured that any baker’s mouth, in combination with syncher baker’s actual mouth, can be substituted for the needed second, “stereo” component of the trance. Pierre is therefore already under when we begin.

Pierre: “The 2 lakes are actually one lake, like the bakers’ mouths. That’s why I can see them: they are a different manifestation of this same duality/non-duality. Two in one.”

baker: “I don’t understand quite yet. Is the dam you speak of twice as high as the Drink Lake dam?”

Pierre: “You can see it in that way if you wish. And then it follows the [Drink] lake is twice as deep.”

baker: “The overlap of these two Great Fathers, as you put it. Norris and then Anderson. Damming the [TILE] Creek represents a repository of quiet memory. Memory as in still water — able to see through it and read the emotions and thoughts of the past. One lake is 20 years deep. Represents the first 20 years of a great man’s life. This is Norris. Then he moves to Beaver City, Nebraska from Old Clyde in [delete year], and then, almost immediately, Anderson moves to Old Clyde, which then becomes New Clyde. Then another 20 years or so is added to the top of the 20 years already present, making the double lake of energized memories you speak of. This takes place from about 1860 to 1900 altogether. I think Anderson left New Clyde for good in 1900.”

Pierre: “1899. One of these lakes is then Wheeler, and we can say the first is, although both are in ways. Then the second, in this way, would be Wilson. Wheeler, then Wilson, just as they appear on the dammed version of the Tennessee River.”

baker: “The one that went to hell.”

Pierre: “Being dammed in this case is the equivalent of going to heaven. The flooding is solved. Transport up and down the river is solved. Energy problems: solved. Cheap electricity for all along the line. The main setback is the loss of whatever was inside the lake line caused by the resulting damnation. That is the hell part for the river. And the quadrobeavs identified with this. They are the archetype for this loss in many ways. And they identify this with the loss of the *old* Great Father, or Old Clyde, whose home and clan were lost beneath the suddenly rising waters of Tile Creek as the sluice ways of the finished dam were closed. Old Clyde did not escape. But from its remains rose the New Clyde, twice as deep.”

Baker: “I think Old Clyde would be the one that Anderson is trying to protect in his story-novel. Like preserving wine in a corked bottle. The cork here is a enlarged concrete version — the dam. Bottled up lake. Like in Billfork.”

Pierre: “I think this has a lot to do with Billfork. There’s a reason this is the twin synch to 4orrin1 minus one, or whatever you wish to call it.”

Baker: “SID’s 1st Oz. Yeah, whatever.”

Pierre: “The water that has turned into antiseptic wine flows from the hand into the bottle. Wine as in Drink. Wine Lake; Drink Lake.”

Baker: “I’ll drink to that.”He takes sip of coffee.

Pierre: “This is the real settings of the two lakes: Old Clyde and New Clyde. Then the *form* of the artificial capture of the memories, or the story-novel, also has a direct antecedent, which comes in the form of Spoon River.”

Baker: “Moon River, whatever.”

Pierre: “The beavers dive from the surface of Drink Lake, which they traditionally call Wall Lake because, underneath the water, their famous central Point becomes a Wall. They dive down from Wall Lake, then, to the original bed, which they think of as Moon River, which is equal to Spoon River in meaning and content.

Baker: “The ritual of moving from surface Wall (Lake) to bottom Moon (River) represents… well, maybe you should tell me this. Should we move into the ritual of Quadrobevia? Perhaps at the synchronous place we can actually get some real work done in this area.”

Pierre: “There’s that other four letter word again. I like the first more.”

Baker: “Play?”

Pierre: “Right.Work-play, then. A confusion between the two. Life as work and play at once. Another duality/non-duality.”

“So: Quadrobeavia? Am I to understand that the beavers at SIDney or whatever you decide to call it….”

Pierre: “SIDney is fine. Like the largest Australian or *Oz* city. SIDney, Oz, then.”

Pierre: “The 4 beavers, which may not be four, exit the lake and come ashore at the point. This is always the case. Part of the ritual.”

Baker: “Is there any order? Is it father, mother, son, daughter?”

Pierre: “Might be. Might vary, depending on what production is being observed in any night.”

Baker: “Okay, did they meet weekly, daily, monthly?”

Pierre: “Time was not really a large consideration for them, but the ritual had something to do with the phases of the moon… That’s the only way they kept time, along with the daily rising and setting of the sun — their “day” — and also the seasons. They understood the larger cycle of spring-summer-fall-winter as encompassing the smaller cycles of 1st half moon-full moon-2nd half moon-new or no moon, and then midnight-sunrise-midday-sunset. Year, month, day, in other words. Approximately. They didn’t try to regulate the division of day into month and month into year, as we do. They were also aware of the changing positions of planets a bit, and also knew of the meaning of eclipse as sun swallowed by moon, which they saw as the solar day eaten by the lunar night. It also represented the eating of the masculine day and year by the feminine month. Quadrobeavia would encompass all of these tiers of time. It’s difficult, however, to separate the knowledge of individuals from the knowledge of the collective. I’m tapping more into the latter. As fore-beavers of Tile, which, after all, is only Time subtracted by one (M turns into L, is what Pierre means here, as baker understands), the beavers would attach the coldest of the seasons, winter, with the coldest color of blue, and the warmest season, summer, with yellow. We have now transposed these into the E and I letters of TILE. The long winter nights are why blue has a higher value than the short summer nights. Then between we have green and red, or spring and fall, following that green arrives with the eruption of leafy plant life in spring and red with death of same in fall. As with modern Tilers, we have a confusion about which is over the other: green or red. And the Quadrobeavs also identified this with what they knew to be Frank and Herman Parks, or what they called Frank and Herman Parks, which are known by ordinary human beings as 2 other names we will not speak. In other words, the Quadrobeavs knew that where they lived, the surrounds, were the projection of the ultimate subtle division of otherwise universal equals of male and female, or son and daughter — spring and fall as son and daughter of winter/mother and summer/father — with the phallus, which projected outward as a “1” from the male, which seems to give him a space advantage over the female, but is then found out in a more enlightened age to actually be swallowable by the nearer, more immediate inverted “1” possessed by the female, as the sun was seen to be swallowed by the moon during solar eclipses. Which was better in the end: male or female? Son/brother or daughter/sister? The debate continues indefinitely.”

Baker: “Because there is no answer.”

Pierre: “Right. There can only be an exchange of the different kinds of “1”, ordinary and reversed, a voiding into each other, the sexual act between equals. The Quadrobeavs understood all this, and also understood that the two children of the four, or Ronge and Roger, were the key to continuing the family unit in the same manner. Father voids Mother to create Son and Daughter. In SIDney, the father was King Father was Jethro and the Queen Mother was not Jethrine, as you might suspect, har, but Fredian, or 2 Queens in one. Another duality/non-duality. In SIDney, the father is seen as the center of all power, but limited in scope. This is due to the limitations of the outward “1”. The inward one, like the moon, had more scope of power, but was not the center. She could move in all 8 directions as far as the limitations of the universe, whereas the Father was bound by his solar system. However, her power was spread out all across this Universe — diffused. The sun knew his place, even though his scope was, in comparison, much more limited. This is much like the king and queen pieces on the chess board, the queen with maximum power in a diffused, non-central way, and the king much more confined — bound by his “oneness” (like the King can only move 1space at a time in any direction on this board) — but also the anchor of the whole game. The king, unlike all other pieces, cannot be killed during the game, but only limited in movement. He cannot move his directed one space?: the game ends. Same with the Universe at large. The one space represents the limitation of the phallus, the single, exterior unit. Lose it and lose all within the game.

“The equality between the sun and moon, masculine and feminine, mother and father, which the sun and moon were for all universal creations, was represented by a particular number for the Quadrobeavs, and this number was 1161 which, when broken down, represented the progression 11-61. When the sun and moon were placed side-by-side, their joined number became 11611161, or 11-61-11-61, which represented the foundation of all v-bear math and, illuminated in the light of TILE, is the yin-yang polarity of 011-061-111-161-211-261, and so on and so on… in other words, equal steps of exactly 50 beginning with the number 11 in our system. Seen in this way, the sun is the macro-number 1 in their system, or *1*11 and *1*61, and the moon represent the number 2, which is collapsed back into “0” to fit the overall system that begins with “0” numbers 011 and 061. So, again to fit the system, the moon would be the original 1161, or (0)11(0)61, or the void, as in the moon voiding the sun’s “oneness” during an eclipse. The 111-161 coupling would represent the sun, then, and the “one” the phallus which “sticks out”.

“You sometimes ask fellow synchers on the [delete board]: “Which comes first, the Head or The Trip?”. This progression answers that question: it is actually the lunar Trip from 1967 that precedes the solar Head of 1968, as it does in the synch Head Trip. The Gibson ERA of 1968, lowest of starting pitchers of the modern era pitching having the necessary amount of innings to legally count, also points to the fact that we are in the 1 year here, or 1.12, which is equivalent to 1.11 or 111.

“This is the explanation for why what might be the original Dean Chance, the Chance who, not by any chance at all, faced exactly l161 batters in both the 1967 and 1968 Major League Baseball seasons in his first two years as a Minnesota Twin, the same amount of batters — 1161 again — that Bob Gibson also faced in 1968, the year he posted the utterly amazing and archetypal 1.12 ERA, which is essentially the same as 1.11 or 111. Chance? No way.”

Baker: “Look, there’s Dean.”

Pierre: “He’s reading the script again!”

Dean drags himself into the coffee shop but does not appear to see Baker and Pierre seated at the back. All eyes are certainly on the very strange figure as he walks in, wheezing.

Baker: “Should we go get him?”

Pierre: “No, let’s see what he decides to do first.”

They watch, then. He approaches the counter, and the cashier backs away in terror. The cook too. Pierre, meanwhile, quickly stares at the cook’s open mouth and then at baker’s only slightly less open mouth to bring himself out of the Times Tin trance for greater mobility in the here-and-now world, in case it was needed, he rationalizes. Dean then appears to see baker and Pierre in the back, and slowly approaches, dragging both deformed feet hideously. He then raises what appears to be a letter in his hand, and then collapses on the floor, hand still holding the letter outstretched from his body.

Pierre walks over and feels Dean’s pulse.

“Dead,” he says to baker. “But he’ll most likely come back to life. This is what the aftereffects of my trance are telling me anyway. Hard to kill a man who can change day to night and night to day at will, we’ve found out.”

Baker: “Right. So what does the note say? And do we take him back to our place?”

Pierre (louder; thinking quick on his feet): “Ooops, there’s a pulse. Yeah, we’ll just take him back to our place.” (To others in the coffee shop): “The flu you understand. Shouldn’t have been walking around.” (to baker, whispering): “Still no pulse. We’ll take him back to our place for the resurrection, if and when it occurs.”

The lights appear to go out. Everyone has disappeared. Only Dean, Pierre and Baker remain. Dean stirs and then sits up. Stars fill the sky framed by restaurant windows.